Trading on Kuwait's hard-hit stock exchange was halted by court order on Thursday, a move cheered by many traders but criticized by the government and other investors who urged their privileged countrymen to stop acting like a "spoiled baby."

Trading on Kuwait's hard-hit stock exchange was halted by court order on Thursday, a move cheered by many traders but criticized by the government and other investors who urged their privileged countrymen to stop acting like a "spoiled baby."

Kuwait moved Sunday to prop up the country's second-largest commercial bank and scrambled to protect depositors at other domestic banks, dashing hopes the oil-rich Arab Gulf would emerge largely unscathed from the global financial crisis.

Kuwait's Central Bank stepped in Sunday to prop up one of the country's biggest banks and said it was considering guaranteeing deposits in domestic banks -- in one of the first concrete signs that the global financial crisis may next hit the oil-rich Gulf.

Kuwait's Central Bank stepped in Sunday to prop up one of the country's biggest banks and said it was considering guaranteeing deposits in domestic banks -- in one of the first concrete signs that the global financial crisis may next hit the oil-rich Gulf.